Marston Moor
MARSTON MOOR: Military aerodrome (also known as TOCKWITH)
Note: Both of these pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
Yet another example of a WW2 airfield being clearly visible some seventy years later.
Military users: WW2: Bomber Command 7 Group
1665 HCU [Heavy Conversion Unit] (Handley page Halifaxs)
Civil operations (1993): Hanward Aviation
Location: SE of Moor Side & SW of Tockwith villages, 8nm W of York
Period of operation: 1941 to 1945
Note: This map is reproduced with the kind permission of Pooleys Flight Equipment Ltd. Copyright Robert Pooley 2014.
Runways: 04/22 1829x46 hard 17/35 1280x46 hard
10/28 1280x46 hard
1993: 10/28 590x18 hard
NOTES: As pointed out several times elsewhere, no ‘Guide’ to British flying sites would be complete without a spanking good ghost story. And indeed, even after many years research I still can’t make my mind up about just how seriously these should be taken - an open verdict so far.
So many are pretty obviously fantasy, but some seem to refuse to succumb to rational thought and reason, especially this one gleaned from Military Ghosts by Alan C. Wood. Or does it?
To quote: “RAF Marston Moor, 8½ miles west of York, opened in 1941 as a Bomber airfield of 7 Group. The airfield was used for aircrew conversion to bomber from other types of aircraft.”
“The Commanding Officer of RAF Marston Moor, from April to September 1943, was Group Captain G. L. Cheshire, VC, DSO, and two Bars, and DFC, who later wrote of his experiences at the airfield.”
My note: Cheshire was also an observer in a B.29 on the Nagasaki nuclear bomb raid but I’d like to think his memory will be mostly associated with the ‘Cheshires Homes’ charity. Cheshire said it wasn’t the Nagasaki experience that propelled him into charitable work, it was the entire WW2 experience.
BACK TO THE STORY
Can you wish for a better witness? “He told of one day, when a training aircraft caught fire in the air, and was struggling to make it back to Marston Moor in spite of the aircrew being told to bale out. The pilot of the stricken aircraft decided to crash land on the airfield, as it was the best chance of survival and would not endanger innocent people on the ground. The aircraft crashed on the airfield, and Group Captain Cheshire was on the scene at once with the airfield crash tender and ambulances."
He went into the tangled wreckage, some of which was on fire, and saw a man in the midst of the carnage. Cheshire stopped, saw the man was alive, but not apparently in need of assistance, and went to look for other aircrew he could help. He found that all the aircrew were dead from the impact of crashing.”
“The airfield crash team and ambulance removed the seven dead aircrew from the crash site, and Cheshire went to the Station Medical Officer, who had remained at the scene. Cheshire asked who the lone survivor was he had seen in the midst of the wreckage. The Medical Officer replied that there were no survivors; all had perished in the crash. Cheshire told the Medical Officer that there had been a survivor; he had seen him walking alive through the wreckage. The Medical Officer told Cheshire that all had been killed instantly, but one body had been found in a hedge, well away from the crash site. The airman had died instantly with a broken spinal chord; he could not have walked away from the crash.”
A RISKY ASSUMPTION ?
Once again this author arrives at a spectacular conclusion: “"Group Captain Cheshire had seen and examined a dead airman, whom he thought was alive.” From his own account a paragraph before, Cheshire saw but did not examine this airman. It is now well known that a broken spinal chord injury may not be fatal immediately, indeed I even know somebody who survived such an accident.
So this ‘ghost’ was quite probably a poor soul who did not realise the extent his injury; tried to walk across to help his fellow aircrew, quite naturally, and killed himself by so doing. Today of course we are advised, if involved in a serious crash, DON’T MOVE, wait till the para-medics arrive. Difficult if not impossible advice to follow if fire threatens.
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